Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT is helpful to delineate maladaptive and negative thinking patterns that often torment and distress people. CBT is particularly useful as an adjunctive and rehabilitation treatment for depression and other problems including low self esteem, anxiety, and other issues. Lists of thought distortions, records of dysfunctional thoughts and their rational reappraisal, life planning strategies that can overcome one’s usual negative pattern of behavior etc. are often given in a work-book fashion that can be an effective method toward self-improvement. This is an example of Psychopharmacology-Integrated CBT (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy), where a medication-illness paradigm is integrated with a psychology-psychotherapy paradigm in order to boost treatment effects from both angles.

Depression & Anxiety: Sometimes an illness like severe depression or anxiety may require medication in order to allow the talk therapy to jump-start. The therapists at the Meguro Counseling Center have considerable experience in using psychiatric medications and keep up to date with the many medications used in Western countries that are not yet available in Japan. Your therapist can provide you with information and recommendations regarding psychiatric medication, and the Meguro Counseling Center works together with a number of physicians licensed in Japan who can provide a prescription as appropriate.

Some of the more common problems that the therapists at the Tokyo Meguro Counseling Center have experience treating includes self-confidence problems, relationship/family problems, depression and manic depression, anxiety/panic, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, substance and alcohol abuse, history of traumatic experiences (PTSD)/child abuse, feelings of unreality, sleep disturbances, psychosomatic (mind/body) disorders, women’s issues, gay and lesbian issues, and child and adolescent disturbances. The Tokyo Meguro Counseling Center has considerable experience in the treatment of depression. Corporate training and conflict resolution is also available, please inquire for details. In addition, Phone or Skype counseling is often provided for persons living in the Kansai area (Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto).

Charts & Graphs. The Meguro Counseling Center often uses charts and graphs in order to conceptualize clinical issues in visual form. These are some examples of the many files used with clients at the Center (the graphs require individual discussion in order to make sense in context of each unique situation):

Core Issues and Defenses; a flow chart of the core psychological issues people have and the adaptive and maladaptive defenses people use.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Also called insight-oriented psychotherapy. A central theme in therapy is that everyone has certain core issues like feeling inadequate or unloved that one sometimes makes maladaptive defenses against (ie. trying too hard to get noticed by others or getting into unhealthy romantic relations) that can lead to trouble for the individual. Understanding and re-working these defenses and how they lead to trouble, as well as minimizing the effects of one’s core issues is a very useful tool in therapy. A detailed description of this approach can be found here: Core Issue-Defense Paradigm, and this page illustrates some clinical case examples. This is a related paper on how defenses can be used in psychotherapy to help one understand and work-through maladaptive behavioral styles.

https://t.co/CgpnuNNVNt: doesn’t mention the exclusion criteria for a personality disorder when the criteria can be explained by another psychiatric disorder. I.e., the diagnosis for BPD notes 7 traits that could easily be due to a mood disorder. Us: https://t.co/59gLBhYuMX

Brain changes have been reported with psychotherapy, but brain changes can be found in various activities: https://t.co/gQpNqj4Xqv found an increase in white matter underlying in a complex visuo-motor skill. Us: https://t.co/2rTavy34n4.

Dr. Steven King promotes efficacy of CBT for pain as best: https://t.co/QZzwfBWpnz, but there is no blind placebo-controlled study of CBT vs any other type of psychotherapy. Modesty in conclusion of efficacy is warranted. US: https://t.co/NExjz3T3Z3

Until there is a reliable biological or genetic parameter that can validly discriminate BPD from other disorders, better modesty to admit that the diagnosis of a personality disorder, especially BPD, will still be far from a valid construct. Us: https://t.co/nCLCm8wkvq

Mindfulness has been found to alter regions of the brain associated with memory & awareness: https://t.co/ndcotXhNQF. But many activities can make brain changes, running, yoga, juggling, etc. there is no special effect to Mindfulness here. Us: https://t.co/CFTtRIymIU

The Psychiatric Times author of the ART (aka EMDR) infomercial, Dr. Wendi Waits, is also a " Master ART Therapist", a COI Psychiatric Times should note. EMDR as pseudoscience: https://t.co/PqEfLAZnq5, & on Quackwatch: https://t.co/i6MURVUfz1. Us: https://t.co/vCyo9ZNPlb.

Psychiatric Times is plugging EMDR as ART: https://t.co/IQcIwH2Zxd. Listed here as pseudoscience: https://t.co/PqEfLAZnq5, EMDR has a long history on Quackwatch: https://t.co/i6MURVUfz1. Us: https://t.co/vCyo9ZNPlb.

Borderline Personality will self-harm, ADHD persons get hyper: https://t.co/gSayzpsaks. There is really no way to differentiate these diagnoses & if a personality disorder is better explained by another disorder, the other disorder takes priority. US: https://t.co/GwwzyYyjaI